Dawn of War II/Apothecary/Strategy
This is written for patch 2.6.0 balance, which will probably stay final. Overview The Apothecary is slow and fragile, and his role is first and foremost staying back out of harm's way and using his Healing Aura and the Heal ability to keep his Marines in the fight longer. Since the faction is designed to suffer few model losses to begin with, the Apothecary's base ability synergizes very well (some have said too well) with the Space Marine backbone units. Heal is very effective on Tactical Squads, but the signature unit of the Apothecary player is usually the Assault Squad. ASM frequently get into situations where they can jump in but must get back out almost immediately, and Heal can completely turn these fights upside down. Instead of causing disruption and retreating, the ASM might now win the fight without falling back to heal up, holding the area instead and being back to full health in no time. Apothecary players will generally favor infantry units over vehicles, opting for a Librarian in tier 2 and Terminators in tier 3. A skilled Apothecary should time his Heal to make maximal use of the effect, timing it just before taking a model loss. When Heal is on cooldown, the Healing Aura should be used to regenerate units in the meantime. Heal The starting ability of the Apothecary, Heal restores 110 health to each model (this distinction is important) of an allied infantry unit and multiplies their regeneration rate by 26 for 4 seconds. The after-effect basically means another 50 health over 4 seconds for units with normal (0.5) regeneration rate, but since the Apothecary's passive aura (see below) already multiplies regeneration by 3, the after-effect is around 150 additional health per model. Heal is gradually improved when the Apothecary gains levels, so that at levels 9–10 the Heal restores 180 health immediately and 180 health over 4 seconds. For an upgraded Tactical/Assault Squad this means restoring a total of 1400 to 1500 health for the unit. Heal is best saved for high-health models such as Tactical and Assault Marines, where it can completely turn an engagement around. It is generally wasted on something like Scouts, unless it means saving the squad from being wiped. Healing Aura The Apothecary has a passive aura that multiplies the health regeneration of allied units by 3 in radius 25. This should be used to heal units that aren't so badly wounded you need to use Heal on them. Early game, keeping the aura on Tacticals behind heavy cover makes them very tanky. Wargear Sanguine Chainsword This weapon grants better melee damage and a small heal effect on each melee hit. It is meant to make the Apothecary a decent melee hero, but he is just too fragile to close in (no teleport, sprint or shield) and fight melee and expect to live. There is generally no reason to get this weapon, ever. Master-Crafted Bolter The ranged weapon is the safest and possibly the best option for the Apothecary. He will deal as much damage as a Technarine or a vanilla Tactical Squad, and now he can both kill stuff and stay out of harm's way, instead of getting killed in melee or just sitting back waiting to heal. The ability is also very good for locking down enemy heroes, although using it spends energy and pushes you towards buying IME as well. Anointed Power Axe This weapon does power melee damage and drains energy, making it a very effective Assault Marine counter. It can also be good for heroes who charge in to disrupt you with an energy shield up or such. The Apothecary is still rather fragile so you may want to think about defending rather than going Waaagh with this weapon. Armor of Purity The easiest armor upgrade, this simply allows you to spam Heal more often. Combat Stims may be more efficient when used well, but Purity needs no extra effort to use. Combat Stimulant Equipment Grants an ability that gives suppression immunity and boosts damage by 40%, which is immense. Allows Assault Marines to fight through War Shout or Doom Blast or layered suppression teams, Tacticals to roast a turret from the front or deal crazy plasma gun damage, or you can just Stim your Librarian before using Smite. Very versatile but you may need to buy IME to use it regularly. Armor of the Apothecarion An expensive upgrade, this armor grants an improved healing ability that slows down the Apothecary and continuously pumps health to surrounding units. It is meant for blobbing all your army together and just tanking the ranged fire, overwhelming the opponent. This is a somewhat noobish strategy, however, and basically asks to be suppressed, plasma cannoned to oblivion or such. Purification Rites A good accessory that adds knockback and minor damage to the basic Heal effect. Quite useful for giving Assault Marines more edge over the opponent (seeing as they don't do so well against proper melee units) or just getting those Hormagaunts off your ranged unit. Purification Vials Grants grenades that do a small amount of grenade damage followed by residual flame damage. These will wipe out squishy infantry units – if they just stand there in the flames, which decent players will definitely not do. In the end, the grenades are easy to avoid and probably the worst Apothecary weagear choice. Improved Medical Equipment A passive upgrade, which grants extra energy and energy regeneration. This is always useful and pretty much required for a build with the MCB and Combat Stimulants. Globals Larraman's Blessing A rage-inducing global that allows you to (reliably) revive yourself for . This saves the usual and the Apothecary will get up where he fell, potentially winning you a fight. Sometimes, however, you really need that for Terminators, so it may be better to spend the instead. Note that Larraman's Blessing will also revive any allied heroes, so if you have 2–3 down the value for your is pretty great. Drop Pod Instant reinforcements for . Space Marine models are so expensive (say you lost 2 Tactical models, 2 Assault models, 2 Scout models and 1 Devastator model – that makes ) this is actually great value even if you used it off-field (in your HQ instead of buying the reinforcements normally), but it will significantly delay getting Terminators so few players decide to use it. Can be game-changing if you are low on resources and really need to get those squads back out there. Angels of Death Makes all your infantry completely invulnerable for 8 seconds. It's expensive at and will again delay those Terminators, but sometimes turning a critical battle or just saving a leveled Tactical Squad or Assault Squad is something you can't afford to pass. Will also counter a nuke if you can't dodge it. Deep Strike Terminator Squad The Apothecary has excellent synergy with Terminators, so this is what you want to have in almost any game. Orbital Bombardment Probably the worst nuke global in the game, this is very expensive and completely worthless. It looks powerful but rarely kills anything but a few cheap models. Only do it to troll your opponent when the game is already over. Category:Dawn of War II multiplayer unit subpages